The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-15

detail of soldiers put on watch each night
among the freight cars but, IN spite OF an
these precautions. the stealing went on Tor
some time One night a negro who worked
about the yard was noticed acting suspl-
ciously by the officers He was arrested, and
when locked mp and told that he must
tell what he knew about 1t. made clean
breast Of the affair, and revealed just such
an organization as that on the ran HANDLE
road. Engaged in the stealing were an en-
glneer, the depot Office Waterman, the yard
master and some fifteen or twenty men on
various trains. Having discovered the or
ganization Capt. Brantlv and the officers
quietly arrested the Office Waterman, and he
also told of the gang The arrest OF thirteen
men soon followed, and then came partial
recovery of the stolen goods
III was developed that the engineer VINO
was at the head of the gang, beng ma
Chlnlst, had made number OF keys which
were furnished to his associates The car
doors were not sealed in those days, and
with the keys it was an easy matter to I'M
lock the doors The cars were robbed be
tween Savannah and Macon. between Au-
gusta and Macon, and along the Southwest
ern railroad, Americas and Smthvlue beng
favorlte points. AT each point where car
was robbed the men had fences, or per
| sons to receive the stolen goods. Those OF
/ the gang who robbed cars at Macon buried
meal 1t was at the close of the war, and
there were people who We're not over partlc-
ular as to where goods came from 50 long as
they were sold at low figures.
When the men were arrested Capt. Brant-
! ly and the officers went to work to tasten
the guilt upon them. The Waterman who
| confessed told that his booty was at home
under the bed, and the officers found sack
OF coffee, flour, meat, candies and various
articles of like character. The other men
would not give themselves away and the
officers were forced to find the goods them
selves. With a steel ramrod they visited
the homes of the various men and began the
search. They would force the ramrod into
| the ground, and wherever 1t would
strike a hard substance there they
| would dig They went one night to
the home of one Of the men and
were about to give up the search when they
decided that probably the right spot
was under a huge pile OF wood.
They removed the wood in a couple
of hours and then used the ramrod.
Is struck something hard, and then the
spade was brought into use. They found a
couple Of boxes Of fine tobacco and eighteen
boxes of cigars. These cigars were of the
'Nebadio' brand, and were handled in this
! section by only one house, that Of Greer 81
| Lake. The firm had recently made a ship
ment and they had been listed on the train
on which some of the arrested men were
working.
The officers found at a store in Macon a
lot of shoes that had been stolen from a car
in the yard, and among them was an odd
| shoe of certain number and make. Capt.
| Brantly went to Atlanta and after much
! difficulty found a quantity of the stolen
| goods, among them some shoes which were
| identified as being portion of the lot in
Macon by the first shoe found. The shoes
had been sold by one Of the train men.
| 1t was also developed that members of the
gang did not always use the keys to unlock
the cars in the Macon yards This, perhaps,
was because there was a constant watch on
their movements. The yard master located
a barrel of whisky, for instance, in car.
| That night a hole was bored through the
bottom of the car and into the barrel, and
the whisky was carried off in buckets
| OF the thirteen men arrested nine were
sent to the penitentiary. Howell Cobb,
| Judge Jackson, and number of leading
lawyers of the State were engaged in the
| defense. Harris q Hunter, of Macon, We're
employed to assist the Solicitor General in
the prosecution.